The Chicken

[Flipflop]

Hey Guys,

I think Dungeon Keeper benefits a lot from its chicken. Thats why I think its a good idea to have them fully animated with sound support in this Game too. Was a lot of fun to feed the Monsters or just slap the chickens (works only one time.....poor chicken... )

I found a "good-enough" one for the Moment at OGA(http://opengameart.org/content/posable-poultry), and start animating it. You can find it in the Sources under assetSources\models\chickens\chickensPoultry.blend.

Chicken

I already started to make an Pick-Animation. Can anyone help me how to save it to the Action Editor and then start another Animation have it choosable at the Action Editor too?

I am also not against it when some more experienced Blender take a lookt at this. But just an advise will help too. We need at least Picking, Idle and Walking animation.

A and btw, voice actor for the Chicken sound!

- Philip

[qubodup]

There is an excellent sound on Freesound under :cc0: terms: http://freesound.org/people/esperar/sounds/170806/
I can help by cutting/converting files if you need any.

[Flipflop]

Haha, thank you! That Soundset is really cool ^^ Better then a "real" Chicken. This suits the Game more. Thanks for the Link

[Julius]

I still think the idea of integrating some smaller things via 2D sprites really wouldn't look all that bad. And the 2D graphics of the chicken over at OGA already have all the needed animations and looks quite cool too.

[Flipflop]

That looks really really really bad together with the free zoomable and rotateable Camera I think. Will not fit to all the other 3d Elements. You played the Demo? Can not imagine a 2d sprite inside there.

[Skorpio]

Yeah, I don't think 2D chickens would fit well to the 3D graphics. Only as a LoD replacement for the 3D models, when you zoom out very far, they might be useful. However, I'd rather use a static image of the 3D model or a symbol for the lowest LoD.

Are you already done with the animations or do you need help? I guess it doesn't need much more than the pick, a walk and a death animation, does it?

[Flipflop]

hey Skopio, good to hear from you )

Yeah I started with the Pickanimation. But then failed to save it as an Action that I can make the next one ^^

Pick, Walk, Idle, and Death Animations would be very nice.

You already find the File in the Sources? I am right now Coding, don´t have much time to spend in the Blend-Files.

[Skorpio]

I currently don't have much time to work on it either. I'm just browsing a little bit.

[Flipflop]

kk ^^ no problem.

I think an experienced blenderer could do that in 10-20mins Also no problem when I cant find someone, when I have the time I can do that myself.

[Skorpio]

I've started to texture the chicken and turned it into a Deutsches Reichshuhn. I don't want to express my political beliefs, I'm not a monarchist, and just found the name hilarious - German Reichschicken. I have to finish the textures before I start to work on additional animations. BTW, the bones were not named properly (no _L and _R suffixes).

[Flipflop]

Haha....I mean I am German, but don´t know we have a chickenclass named like that...made my day

But besides that, looks much better then before, what can I say....you obviously know what you are doing. Sorry for the Bones, I keep them like that when I got them from OGA.

[Flipflop]

Hey Skorpio,

I dont want to set you under pressure, but now, the creatures go to sleep when they are tired....but what to do when they are Hungry?

They dont like Chickens without movement...dont want to eat already "death" food

- Flipflop

[Danimal]

Why do you say that? Dungeon keeper 2 was a feast of rubber chickens:

[Skorpio]

Sorry I've been busy, but maybe I can complete the chicken in the next days.

[Skorpio]

I've just uploaded the chicken to the Open Dungeons SVN repository. The chicken has 6 animations (which could still be improved): Walk, pick, die, sleep, paw, idle. Paw and sleep could be used as alternative idle animations.

[Flipflop]

I've just uploaded the chicken to the Open Dungeons SVN repository. The chicken has 6 animations (which could still be improved): Walk, pick, die, sleep, paw, idle. Paw and sleep could be used as alternative idle animations.

Very Nice. I was not in Hamburg at the Weekend, but I will try it out soon! Maybe tonight.

[Flipflop]

Hi Skorpio,

I have some issues with the Sleep Animation with the Chicken when I run it as an Idle Animation:


youtu.be/fz0XWZOZbhk

If you have some Time, would be very nice if you can fix that

Thanks,

Flipflop

[Skorpio]

It looks like the action strips got blended together. I've sent you the updated files per e-mail. The 'sleep' animation is actually just a 'sit' animation, I think that's how chicken sleep.

[Flipflop]

Thanks for you fast fix!

It working fine now, chickens spawning correclty, moving correctly (THANKS to you again) and are eaten correctly by the monsters...

Just a few fixes, maybe I can manage it until tomorrow evening to upload a new chicken-features video.

Totally busy at the Weekend (Sa / So), but next week totally free for this Project.

- Philip

[Flipflop]

Need some Ideas about Chickens / Hatchery Behavior.

The Hatcheryies Producing some chickens automaticly over time.

(1) My Monsters run to the closest Hatchery with Chickens if they are Hungry.

(2) When the reach there they pick a random chicken and eat it.

(3) If a Monster reach there and no chicken left he look for another Hatchery (Start Again at Point 1)

My Qustion: How long this should go on? When there are "too" unhappy and leave the dungeon?

- Flipflop

[Skorpio]

I guess it's best to figure out a time limit by testing it in-game. How do you track the hunger level?

[Danimal]

You could have a point based system to control morale:
Each monster type has a different quantity (Skeletons should have huge quantities, normal "living" monsters a normal quantity, high class monster just a few)
They start with all of them full, each time something they dont like happens (hunger meter totally empty, no gold on payday, no bed, nothing to do...) one is deducted, when it hits 0 they flee the dungeon or turn rogue. But each time one of their meters get totally full one point is added or recovered.
So you could make them search for food when their hunger meter is 25% full, if they cant find food before it reaches 0, one morale point is deducted, but if you put them into a hatchery with food, and they stuff themselves to fullness the point is recovered.
You need some kind of "time checker" that makes this comprobation at fixed intervals, so if one creature has gone without food for a long time(or any of the other conditions), at each comprobation a new point deducted, while recovered points can be awarded on the spot for fulfilling one need (full stomach, got paycheck, fully rested, prying at temple...)

It maybe complex but i think its a good morale system.

[Flipflop]

Hey Guys,

I already have a time-based Status Update. Every Creature has his own Status controller.

The hole game is based on "simulation-rounds". So every Round this controller can do something.

At this moment it decreases the Fed-status (Hunger) and the Awakeness (Sleep Need).

The Agent then itself triggers some actions if some of his status is under a specific value. Like going to sleep oder find a hatchery with chickens.

So what I should do then, cosidering your Ideas:

I can simply add a Moral-Value. That is decreased for any kind of possible condition. Like you mentioned @danimal if the hunger is above 25 and so on.

I want to make a "smiley" system to make the moral visible to the player. I already have the HP, Hunger and Sleep bar so I think its better then just another Bar.

If the Moral is too long 0 the monster go back to the portal and disappear. Or starts attacking other monster....we´ll see

- Flipflop

[Flipflop]

And the Result until now:


youtu.be/xcN4cX_8-dI

[Skorpio]

Cool. I think I have to make a 'grab & eat' animation for the creatures and a 'grabbed' animation for the chicken. Should the creatures eat the chickens raw or should we introduce a kitchen? Then the creatures can throw some chickens into a meat chopper to produce delicious chicken nuggets.